Mills & Boon Intrigue — Seek thrills. Solve crimes. Justice served. Conard County: Covert Avenger - Rachel Lee CIA operative Devlin Paltier never thought returning to his small Wyoming hometown would be riskier than an undercover mission. But Devlin knows that revealing he’s no ordinary cowboy could bring danger to everyone in his world. Including Deputy Elaine Paltier, his widowed sister-in-law and the off-limits woman he’s never been able to forget. Before long, though, Devlin’s dark secrets come back to haunt him...along with two killers hell-bent on revenge. Now protecting Elaine becomes the most crucial assignment of his career — and the only way to secure a possible shared future. Colorado Kidnapping - Cindi Myers The disappearance of his young daughter sets sheriff’s deputy Ryker Vernon on the trail of desperate kidnappers. Complicating the single father’s mission is the search and rescue volunteer who joins the lawman’s team. Harper Stanick was Ryker’s high school sweetheart...until she vanished from his life. As past secrets surface, the hunt leads to someone close to Ryker. Now he and Harper must stop a ruthless criminal with a deadly agenda if they are to bring his lost little girl home. The Killer Next Door - Amanda Stevens Getting laid up with a broken ankle and placed on leave could not have happened at a worse time for Detective Sydney Shepherd. Enter former cop turned private investigator Trent Gannon, who believes her current investigation dovetails with his cold case. There is a complex past and deep emotions between Sydney and Trent. But when there’s another victim, they agree to shelve their undeniable attraction and team up to collect evidence to connect the dots between the cases. Increasingly all indications point to Sydney’s next-door neighbour as the prime suspect. Will Sydney and Trent be the next casualties? What Lies Below - Carol Ericson Heath Bradford never expressed his attraction to loner Willow Sands back in high school. Now that he’s returned to Dead Falls, supposedly to broker a land deal, Willow views him as the enemy. Fiercely protective of the island’s ecosystem, she’s an obstacle to his development project. But Heath’s true purpose for returning is to solve a mystery that’s haunted him for years. Then Willow’s neighbour is killed, and she becomes the target of a series of attacks. And protecting the woman he still yearns for becomes his only purpose. K-9 Defender - Julie Miller After a betrayal that almost took his life, Detective Joel Standage is deskbound. A new assignment is his chance to find out if he still has what it takes to be a cop. His mission? Get close to Mollie Crane, a woman who’s as guarded — and wounded — as he is. Her service dog, Magnus, trusts Joel before she does. When it becomes clear that his interest in her crime boss ex-husband is putting her in danger, what started as a case becomes personal, and Joel will do whatever it takes to protect her... Hometown Homicide - Denise N. Wheatley The hunt for the murderer of two women could be the make-or-break case of Drew Taylor’s career. The veteran police officer has no time to babysit a newbie cop with something to prove. Thrilled to be partnered with the man she has long admired, Nia Brooks pursues every lead...until her life is threatened. And Drew struggles with being protector and partner to Nia. With the sole clue a bloody fingerprint, Nia and Drew race to apprehend an elusive killer who doesn’t fit any criminal profile. But when a hidden agenda starts to become terrifyingly clear...it’s Nia and Drew who could become the next victims.

Josh Cybulski's debut novel explores a generation who were told they could do anything. Some did, and without a doubt still are, and some became disillusioned at the first signs of adversity. Meet Sarge, Messy, Hecky and R-Luv, four media school grads who head towards the booming film industry in Vancouver. Art is a distant memory as they pursue North Hollywood lights and their spoils of sex, drugs, and, let's face it, more drugs. But, good luck turns bad in Second Story Work as these young men scramble to sustain whetted appetites that they could never satisfy. Cybulski's gritty tale is one of crime, betrayal, and moral apathy, where the difference between friend and foe is blurred line after line.

From King Kong to Candyman, the boundary-pushing genre of the horror film has always been a site for provocative explorations of race in American popular culture. In Horror Noire: Blacks in American Horror Films from 1890's to Present, Robin R. Means Coleman traces the history of notable characterizations of blackness in horror cinema, and examines key levels of black participation on screen and behind the camera. She argues that horror offers a representational space for black people to challenge the more negative, or racist, images seen in other media outlets, and to portray greater diversity within the concept of blackness itself. Horror Noire presents a unique social history of blacks in America through changing images in horror films. Throughout the text, the reader is encouraged to unpack the genre’s racialized imagery, as well as the narratives that make up popular culture’s commentary on race. Offering a comprehensive chronological survey of the genre, this book addresses a full range of black horror films, including mainstream Hollywood fare, as well as art-house films, Blaxploitation films, direct-to-DVD films, and the emerging U.S./hip-hop culture-inspired Nigerian "Nollywood" Black horror films. Horror Noire is, thus, essential reading for anyone seeking to understand how fears and anxieties about race and race relations are made manifest, and often challenged, on the silver screen.

Whether they focus on the bewitching song of the Sirens, his cunning escape from the cave of the terrifying one-eyed Cyclops, or the vengeful slaying of the suitors of his beautiful wife Penelope, the stirring adventures of Ulysses/Odysseus are amongst the most durable in human culture. The picaresque return of the wandering pirate-king is one of the most popular texts of all time, crossing East-West divides and inspiring poets and film-makers worldwide. But why, over three thousand years, has the Odyssey's appeal proved so remarkably resilient and long-lasting? In her much-praised book Edith Hall explains the enduring fascination of Homer's epic in terms of its extraordinary susceptibility to adaptation. Not only has the story reflected a myriad of different agendas, but - from the tragedies of classical Athens to modern detective fiction, film, travelogue and opera - it has seemed perhaps uniquely fertile in generating new artistic forms. Cultural texts as diverse as Joyce's Ulysses, Suzanne Vega's Calypso, Monteverdi's Il Ritorno d'Ulisse in Patria, the Coen Brothers' O Brother Where Art Thou?, Daniel Vigne's Le Retour de Martin Guerre and Anthony Minghella's Cold Mountain all show that Odysseus is truly a versatile hero. His travels across the wine-dark Aegean are journeys not just into the mind of one of the most brilliantly creative of all the ancient Greek writers. They are as much a voyage beyond the boundaries of a narrative which can plausibly lay claim to being the quintessential global phenomenon.

An informative look at the military conflicts that most altered the course of history and civilization, from ancient times to the modern world. Rather than celebrating warfare, 50 Battles That Changed the World looks at the clashes the author believes have had the most profound impact on world history. Ranked in order of their relevance to the modern world, these struggles range from the ancient past to the present day and span the globe many times over. Some of the battles in this book are familiar to us all—Bunker Hill, which prevented the American Revolution from being stillborn, and Marathon, which kept the world’s first democracy alive. Others may be less familiar—the naval battle at Diu (on the Indian Coast), which led to the ascendancy of Western Civilization and the discovery of America, and Yarmuk, which made possible the spread of Islam from Morocco to the Philippines. With remarkable accounts of both famous and lesser-known clashes, 50 Battles That Changed the World provides impressive insight into the battles that shaped civilization as we know it.

Examines social and cultural phenomena through the lens of different television shows We all have opinions about the television shows we watch, but television criticism is about much more than simply evaluating the merits of a particular show and deeming it ‘good’ or ‘bad.’ Rather, criticism uses the close examination of a television program to explore that program’s cultural significance, creative strategies, and its place in a broader social context. How to Watch Television brings together forty original essays from today’s leading scholars on television culture, writing about the programs they care (and think) the most about. Each essay focuses on a particular television show, demonstrating one way to read the program and, through it, our media culture. The essays model how to practice media criticism in accessible language, providing critical insights through analysis—suggesting a way of looking at TV that students and interested viewers might emulate. The contributors discuss a wide range of television programs past and present, covering many formats and genres, spanning fiction and non-fiction, broadcast and cable, providing a broad representation of the programs that are likely to be covered in a media studies course. While the book primarily focuses on American television, important programs with international origins and transnational circulation are also covered. Addressing television series from the medium’s earliest days to contemporary online transformations of television, How to Watch Television is designed to engender classroom discussion among television critics of all backgrounds.